tempt you to sit brooding over your sorrows, and nurse them to a dangerous size. . . Forgive the freedom of a stranger, Madam, who desires to be the humble and faithful servant of Christ and souls.

"ISAAC WATTS."

His son, Joseph Sewall, graduated at Harvard College, was associated with four different colleagues in the pastorate of the Old South Church in Boston, and had a ministry of fifty-five years. [His last colleague, Mr. Blair, preceded the Mr. Bacon who entered upon civil office.]

The diary of Samuel Sewall was published in the "Massachusetts Historical Collections."

GEORGE SHARSWOOD.

JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1868.*

GEORGE SHARSWOOD was born in Philadelphia, July 7, 1810; died there, May 28, 1883.

He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1828; studied law, and came to the Philadelphia Bar in 1831; was appointed Judge of the District Court in 1845; was President Judge from 1851 to 1867; and in 1868 became Judge of the Supreme Court of the State.

Mr. Sharswood was converted under the ministry of Rev. Dr. William Engles. He made his confession before the Session of the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, on Wednesday evening, July 10, 1833, and was publicly baptized on the Friday evening following. He was ordained a Ruling Elder, June 8, 1856, and served in that office almost twenty-seven years.

"The virtue of humility was greatly exalted in his religious experience, and he sat at the feet of Jesus with the meekness and faith of a little child. Speaking once concerning scepticism, he expressed the fear that he could not view with becoming charity and intellectual sympathy unbelief in his fellows, because he had never known the sentiment; his mind was free-absolutely free-from religious doubt. Indeed,' he continued, 'I could almost wish that I had somewhat of doubt upon some point of faith, that I might win the high satisfaction of overcoming it.'" The following are passages from the writings of Mr. Sharswood :

"Legislation is the noblest work in which the intellectual *Lanman; "Discourse," by Rev. Henry C. McCook.

GEORGE SHARSWOOD.

437

powers of man can be engaged, as it resembles most closely the work of the Deity."

"The power of society over its individual members, or, in other words, sovereignty, which is practically vested in the Legislature, is a type of the Divine power which rules the physical and moral universe."

"Is it possible that a being so fearfully and wonderfully made as man, and animated by a spirit still more fearful and incomprehensible, was created for the brief term of a few revolutions of the planet he lives on? ... No, this mind can never die! Its moral progress must go on in an unending existence, of which its life of fourscore years on earth is scarce the childhood. Let us beware, then, of raising these objects of ambition, wealth, learning, honor, and influence, worthy though they be, into an undue importance."

Mr. Sharswood was fond of the classics. He habitually read the Greek Testament, and would frequently discuss with a clerical friend the precise meaning of particular passages. When in middle life, he studied Hebrew, and read the Old Testament entirely through in the original.

With his friends he was eminently social and genial, giving way to humor and wit, and choice bits of wisdom.

He published, "Essay on Professional Ethics," third edition, 1869; "Lectures Introductory to the Study of the Law," 1870. Columbia College conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., in 1856.

WILLIAM SHEPHERD.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 1797-1803.*

WILLIAM SHEPHERD, son of Deacon John Shepherd, was born near Boston, Mass., December 1, 1737; died in Westfield, Mass., November 11, 1817.

At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the Provincial Army and served six years. He entered the army of the Revolution as Lieutenant-Colonel, and continued in the service till 1783, participating in twenty-two engagements. Summoned from his farm by the Shay's Insurrection in 1786, at which time he was a Brigadier-General of Militia, he prevented the insurgents from capturing the Arsenal at Springfield.

He was a member of the Massachusetts Executive Council in 1788, 1789, and 1790, and was a Representative in Congress from 1797 till 1803.

"For thirty-four years Mr. Shepherd was a professor of religion, and a constant attendant upon public worship. His house was a house of prayer."

He married Sarah Dewey, and the relation continued fifty-seven years.

* Drake's "Dictionary of American Biography"; Allen.

ETHER SHEPLEY.

CHIEF-JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF MAINE, 1855.*

ETHER SHEPLEY was born in Groton, Mass., in 1789; died in 1877.

He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1811, commenced first the study of medicine, finally took up the law; commenced practice at Saco, Me., and subsequently settled at Portland. His public career began in connection with the separation of the district of Maine from the State of Massachusetts. "For the purpose of aiding in the accomplishment of this object," says Mr. Shepley, "I consented to be a candidate, and was elected a member of the House of Representatives, in the Legislature of Massachusetts, for the year 1819, and took part in the deliberations of that body, when the act providing for a separation was passed." He was for thirteen years United States Attorney for Maine; was Senator in Congress from 1833 to 1836; was appointed in 1836 Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, and subsequently Chief-Justice of Maine, holding the latter position until 1855. The following year he was appointed, by a resolve of the Legislature, sole commissioner to revise the General Statutes of the State.

"In 1822 took place an event which he regarded as the most momentous of his life. He writes: . . . While traveling alone from place to place on professional duties, I found my mind employed in the contemplation of the condition of man upon the earth. The more I reflected, the more inexcusable appeared to me to be that condition and his course of life. Surrounded by the means of promoting their own happiness and that of others,

* Lanman; "Discourse," by Rev. Edward Y. Hincks.